


Kuuketsu

by The_Kellith



Category: Hellsing, Ranma 1/2, Rosario + Vampire, Touhou Project, Tsukihime
Genre: Multi, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:15:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25491487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Kellith/pseuds/The_Kellith
Summary: After being turned into a vampire when her father gave her a bottle of wine that turned out to be vampire blood, Nabiki Tendou is searching for the vampire whose blood she accidentally imbibed. Having enlisted Ally and Lisa Williams, aka Beyonetta and Rayne, on their Tokyo honeymoon to help the search, the group runs into Seras Victoria when she and her master crash a diversity bar called Shouganai on vampire night. Seras becomes determined that this is not a job that she will be satisfied leaving 99.9% unfinished.This story is contemporary with Thrythlind's 'Late Start' here on Ao3 and occurs in the same universe with his permission.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Late Start](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24992596) by [Thrythlind](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thrythlind/pseuds/Thrythlind). 



Kuuketsu  
By Branwen Gillen

Chapter 1

“Sup, bitches,” the black-haired, pale-skinned, man in a red coat and a wide-brimmed red hat greeted as he kicked the double doors to the club open and strode in like he owned the place. Every vampire in the club stared at him as he made his way through the crowd towards the bar, a pale blonde english police girl with large breasts following in his wake.

Nabiki deliberately turned her back to him as he stepped up to the bar, looking down into her glass. “Oh, megami-sama,” she prayed under her breath, “please not him.”

Carmilla quietly glared up at him as she polished a wine glass, looking far too young tonight to be tending a bar. Her slitted red eyes peeked from under long crimson tresses, a black and violet cheongsam clinging to her tiny, slender body.

“Wow, it’s totally dead in here tonight,” he quipped, glancing at the room full of vampires around them. “Don’t the kids bring any warm bodies to these mixers nowadays?”

Silently putting down the glass, she reached up to grasp his ear, twisting it harshly. “Oh, look, I just caught Carmen Sandiago! Your master let you slip the leash again?”

“Whaaaat?” he whined. “I’m here on legit business, Carmilla! Integra finally signed off on killing all the Konami executives! You should have seen the horrors in there, I mean, I never thought you could mistreat ghouls before…”

“And you finished the job?” she interrupted.

“Yes! I mean. Ninety-nine point nine percent sure.”

She let him go, showing fang as she snarled at him. “One! You let ONE get away, blockhead! Lucky for you, it ended up at a high school so a bunch of plucky young psychotics were able to quell the outbreak.”

“Well, all’s well that ends well, right? God, the way you’re acting, you’d think this was Racoon City all over again.”

“Um, Master?” the english vampire called attention to herself from behind him.

“Oh, right, Carmilla, this is my new fledgling, the big-titted police girl. Big-titted police girl, Carmilla, the owner and proprietor of Shouganai.”

“My name is Seras Victoria,” she insisted flatly.

“Welcome to Shouganai, Seras,” Carmilla said politely before turning back to Alucard. “You. Say my name.”

He looked confused. “Carmilla?”

“No,” she snapped, “my OTHER name.”

He paused for a moment, looking like he had a bad taste in his mouth. “Michael McDoesn’texist.”

“Good,” she smiled. “Shinso get the VIP table. I’ll come over with drinks, I’m sure the others would like to catch up. Sorry, Seras, you’ll have to mingle on the floor, no exceptions.”

Seras blinked. “No, that’s good, I’d like to meet some people my age. Wait, Shinso? That means True Ancestor, right? Master, how old are you?”

“Why, I’m my own grandpa,” he laughed in answer, looking back over his shoulder as he walked towards the VIP table. After two steps, he impacted face-first with a solid wall of feminine blubber.

Alucard slowly looked up the wall of flesh in front of him, past the belly and massive boobs to the bloated face above. She was wearing a wide-brimmed hat in a much more feminine style than his and her eyes gleamed with malice. “Woah, hi there Dana! Still rolling in flour to look for the wet spot, huh?”

Without a word, Dana bloodlessly shoved her meaty fingers into his chest. After a moment where time seemed to freeze and Alucard could do nothing but stand gasping, eyes wide, Dana clenched her fist and pulled. Alucard’s form, clothes and all, turned inside-out in a burst of writhing shadows and eyes. As the shadows receded, a young white-haired man in a light-grey longcoat similar to his red one stood in his place, holding his forehead. “Woah!” he said, swaying in place.

“Soma! So good to see you!” Dana greeted, hugging the white-haired incarnation of Dracula. His head was pulled between her breasts, with his arms and shoulders pinned between her belly and her underboob as his muffled cries issued from deep within. “Come on, darling, let’s go join the others,” she said, dragging his feet behind her as she walked with him still embedded in her chest.

The other vampires started chatting with each other again as the spectacle of the Shinso left the floor. The white-haired singer on the stage took up the mic again and began a cover of Cry Little Sister.

Seras stared after her master, jaw flapping in the wind. “Who on Earth was that?” she asked.

Nabiki turned back to face her. “Dana Ananga Jagannatha,” she explained, “the Witch of the Rift. She’s probably the most powerful of the Shinso… No offence, Carmilla.”

“None taken,” Carmilla murmured as she arranged the glasses and blood bottles onto a silver tray. “Watch out for the newbie for me, would you Nabiki? Seras, this is Nabiki Tendou, you can trust her.”

“Nice to meet you,” Nabiki said, smiling as Seras took the seat next to her.

Maim placed a glass of blood on the bar in front of the englishwoman as she sat next to Nabiki. “Here you go, French blood, on the house,” the bartender said with a wink.

Seras looked at the blood dubiously before taking a tiny sip. Blinking in surprise, she took a bigger sip. “Wow, this is good!”

“We all have our type,” Nabiki said. “I’m demihemovorous, I prefer the blood of people I have an emotional attachment to.”

“Huh, I’m not sure myself, I’ve only really had Sir Integra’s blood since I was turned. But her blood is really nice,” she admitted, blushing when she thought about sucking on the white-haired aristocrat’s finger.

Nabiki watched Sera’s line of sight turn towards the VIP tables. Soma was extracting himself from Dana next to a table with several vampires. A pink-haired young woman sat in the lap of an ordinary-looking Japanese man, both impeccably dressed. Across from them sat another woman with shoulder-length blonde hair wearing a white turtleneck with a long blue skirt and knee-high brown boots. An old bearded man with a cane and a half-length cloak was laughing at Dana and Soma’s antics.

At a second table, Carmilla was joking with a small group of mostly blonde and white-haired little girls. Two of them were wearing frilly outfits, one with bat wings while the other had twigs with crystals hanging from them, bickering with each other. Another with long hair wrapped in a tattered black cloak was glaring daggers at Dana. A similar-looking girl with twin tails in a pink hoodie was anomalously nibbling at a doughnut. The final member at their table was a Japanese schoolgirl with short black hair, a katana resting on the table next to her.

“So those are the Shinso, huh?” Seras asked.

“Yep, most of the regulars at least. Dana and Soma are talking with Moka, Tsukune, Arcueid and Zelretch. Carmilla’s entertaining the girls, the sisters are Remilia and Flandere, then there’s Evangeline, Shinobu and Saya. Miyu doesn’t seem to be here tonight. Saya’s a vampire who hunts rogue vampires, like you.”

“What? I’m not a rogue vampire,” she said innocently, pointing to herself.

Nabiki giggled, covering her mouth. “No, silly, I meant you’re a vampire hunter.”

“Oooooh. Right, my day job, that’s totally what I do,” Seras said, sighing. “Sorry, it honestly feels like all I do is cater to Master’s whims and attempt to tone down his excesses.”

“Well, he’s the big vampire’s problem tonight,” Nabiki suggests, linking arms with the girl as she stands up. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to some of my friends.”

They approached a table where a stunning woman with night black hair and impossibly long legs was devouring the lips of a redhead in black and scarlet latex. Nabiki coughed meaningfully to break the two up before helping the beet-red Seras into a seat opposite. “Seras Victoria, this is Ally and Lisa Williams, formerly of New York.”

“Hi,” they both greeted, Ally waving while Lisa gave an apologetic shrug thanks to the bindings around her arms.

Seras squinted at them both. “Um, hi. Forgive me but you two look awfully familiar.”

Ally grinned while Lisa blushed and looked away. “You might know us as Beyonetta and Rayne…”

“Oh!” Seras exclaimed. “The butterfly witch and the dhampir! More vampire hunters. Wait, I thought you were a witch, not a vampire?”

“We’re taking a break now that we’re married,” Lisa murmured. “Ally got turned on a hunt and I was looking for something to do after I evened the score with my father. We were both recovering in New York and I was writing and as it turns out, Ally was my biggest fan. We kinda hit it off.”

“So what are you doing in tokyo?” Seras asked.

“Honeymoon,” they answered in unison. “We’re also trying to track down Nabiki’s sire.”

Seras looked to Nabiki. “You don’t know who your master is?”

“I don’t have a ‘master’,” Nabiki denied imperiously. “My human father gave me ‘medicine’ which happened to be vampire blood for some harebrained reason.”

“Huh, I guess it was lucky you were a virgin,” Seras said, “otherwise you’d have turned into a ghoul.”

The three vampires stared at Seras for a long moment before bursting into laughter. “Oh! Oh, kami-sama, who told you you had to be a virgin to become a vampire?” Nabiki asked.

“What? That’s what Master told us!”

Seras looked lost as the other three women lost it even harder. Once they’d recovered, Ally shook her head. “Sorry, you’re so sweet! You don’t have to be a virgin to become a vampire. Ghouls are created when you kill with a bite or feed a corpse your blood. Vampires are usually created with this whole ritual of drinking humans dry then feeding them your blood.”

“The vampire blood I drank was poisonous and I died from it,” Nabiki grumbled. “It hurt. A lot. Stupid father.”

“So, so, your master, the one who has the hots for Integra Van Helsing,” Lisa gasped, “has told you all that you have to stay as virgins for him to turn you?”

Seras blinked. “Yes, what, why is that important?” she asked before the answer hit her like a smack on the back of the head. Hitting her forehead on the table, she groaned. “Of course, it’s so that Sir Integra saves herself for him.”

Nabiki gave her a conciliatory pat as the girls giggled. “There, there. Alucard’s a pig, you’d be much better off with Soma or the other Alucard.”

“Master’s not so bad once he cuts the BS,” Seras groaned. Pausing, she cocked her head towards Nabiki. “Hey, your hand’s warmer than I am. And I swear I can hear your heartbeat.”

“That’s part of the mystery,” Ally said. “Somehow, Nabiki’s only mostly dead but she’s still a vampire. It could be a bloodline trait or a mutation or just an effect of the blood poisoning. We’ve been looking for a reliable researcher or occultist for more information but good ones are rare. The last guy we tried was obsessed with dissecting people.”

“Doesn’t help that people like the Binge Eater’s giving us all a bad name right now,” Nabiki laments.

“Binge Eater?” Seras asked.

“We’ve got a type of flesh-eating species similar to vampires in Japan we call ‘gūru’ which translates to ‘eater species’. They’re not ghouls though, they’re human-like with special adaptations and belong to vampire society. Binge Eater’s a rogue, there’s a bounty on them and everything. They’ve eaten a bunch of people, way more than most gūru need to survive.”

“Don’t you have vampire hunters like Hellsing to deal with that sort of thing?”

“Oh, tons of them! The Black Order, DWMA, The Gotei 13, UQ Holder, The Order of the True Cross, CCG, The Agency, The Organization, The Hero Association, Red Shield, Demon Slayer Corps… That’s just off the top of my head, not counting the lone hunters and amateurs.They’re all supposedly on the case but Binge Eater’s either got inside help or they’re just that tricky.”

Seras tapped her cheek, musing. “All of the vampires I know are properly undead but I’ve heard of dhampir born from vampires and humans. You could be like them, only mostly dead. There were also those weird vampires Master and I killed in America… You don’t sparkle in sunlight do you?”

“No.” Nabiki stated flatly.

“Good. Do you have any idea who the blood might have come from?”

Blushing, Nabiki glanced up at the VIP tables. “No, nobody I’m comfortable talking about. I mean, every vampire orphan wants to think their maker was secretly one of the Shinso, right? The Shino are so charismatic, we can’t help but feel something in their presence.”

Lisa leant forward. “It might be a long shot but if you feel some connection to one of the Shinso you might be right. Which one?”

Everyone at the table leant forward so that Nabiki could whisper so low that not even the vampires around them would hear. “Moka Akashiya.”

The door burst open again. The man who stepped through looked like a golden god with a wicked glint in his eye. Again, the vampires in the room went silent as he stepped inside, a malevolent aura filling the room. Without pause, he strode confidently to Nabiki’s table, his baleful eyes only on her. He towered over the girls, a monolith of hard muscle. Grasping the cape draped over his shoulder, he discarded the garment with a flourish, laughing at the top of his lungs as he posed suggestively.

“A-HA! Nabiki Tendo! You thought your vampire master was Moka Akashiya but it was ME! DIO!”


	2. Kuuketsu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nabiki meets her new vampire trainers.

Kuuketsu Chapter 2  
By Branwen Gillen

“ZA WORLDO! AARGH!”

Despite having stopped time, Carmilla’s hyperspeed punch catapulted him through the exit door. He skidded across asphalt, impacting with a dented steel wall that had been reinforced for the purpose of surviving such impacts. His bones crumpled, turning the musclebound vampire into a sack of gelatin.

“I thought I told you to keep your conniving ass out of my bar, baka,” Sara growled, a thousand tentacles wrapped around Dio’s Stand, The World, as she dragged it out of the bar. Nabiki followed at a tentative distance.

Keeping all eyes on Dio, Sara held her bloody fist out to Nabiki. “Smell,” she commanded.

Nabiki took a tentative sniff and her nose wrinkled in disgust. “Ewww!”

“Not your Master,” Sara confirmed. “Up to your usual bullshit, Dio?”

The living paste gurgled in protest.

“Did someone put you up to this?” she asked.

Dio bubbled defiantly.

“Well, if you’re not going to cooperate,” Sara murmured, snapping her fingers. “Come on, baby.”

Dio and The World disappeared in a puff of black smoke, replaced by a white-haired girl in a maid’s outfit and a pocket watch respectively. Sara threw the new girl the pocket watch. “What’s your name?”

“Sakuya,” she said, getting up and dusting herself off. “I’m a vampire hunter.”

Nabiki was making gagging noises, her eyes bugging out of her head. Sara gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, if you knew Dio you’d know he deserved this.” Looking back to Sakuya, the bartender kept her smile. “Any idea why you were here?”

The maid considered. “Something about an organization that wanted to bring one Tendo Nabiki ‘back into the fold’.”

“Back,” Sara repeated, looking to Nabiki, “as in returning her?”

Nabiki shook her head. “I’ve never been involved with a vampire organization.”

They were interrupted when Remilia Scarlet stormed through the exit. “There you are, Sakuya! Come on, Flandere and I are going home.”

Sakuya bowed obediently. “Yes, Mistress. Thank you for your time, Carmilla.”

“Have fun,” Sara said, waving goodbye as they walked away.

“What did you do to them?” Nabiki asked breathlessly.

“It’s a move I learnt from a guy I ate,” Sara explained, “it’s called ‘Midnight Bliss’. Come on, you need to talk to some people at the VIP table. Go get your friends and bring them too.”

A few minutes later, Nabiki, Aly, Lisa and Seras were standing awkwardly before the elder Shinso. Zelrich leant back in his chair as he considered the information Carmilla had just laid out before them. “It’s not the Clocktower,” he said confidently.

“That’s a relief,” Soma murmured, looking to Arcueid.

Arcueid smiled at him. “Yes, the Millenium Castle is safe. What about Cosmo Entelecheia?”

“Neutralized,” Evangeline answered. “I think the most likely culprits are Aogiri Tree, Amalgam, Millennium or Fairy Tale.”

“Millenium!” Lucy repeated in a baleful voice, a fire in her eyes.

“Fairy Tale was crushed along with the Black Parade,” Moka insisted, “and the Shuzen Family are now under my control. Stragglers may have joined Aogiri Tree, but Fairy Tale is gone. Does anyone here have any insight on Amalgam?”

Carmilla nodded. “I have some contacts keeping an eye on them. They’re more concerned with the Whispers than weaponizing vampires. Last research report I read suggested we’re generally too volatile to rely on as soldiers.”

“As long as you’re not a Shinso,” Dana commented.

“Indeed, which leaves Aogiri Tree and Millennium, only one of which is known to operate in Japan and experiment in creating new vampires,” Carmilla surmised.

“Aogiri Tree,” Nabiki mused. “I know some people I can ask about them.”

“Good. I have a contact that’s worked against them in the past, I’ll see if they’ll consent to talk to you,” Carmilla added.

Nabiki bowed in thanks before turning to Moka. “Akashya-sama, if you don’t mind, I’ve felt a connection to you before. Would you please allow me to scent your blood?”

Moka’s eyes narrowed, but she held her arm out to Tsukune’s mouth. Wordlessly, her vampire lover bit into her wrist, allowing a drop of blood to flow. All three of the younger vampires gasped as the scent hit them, urging them to lean close to partake. Nabiki’s hand trembled but she remained standing. “It smells familiar,” she hissed breathlessly, “but you’re not my sire.”

“You said some of the Fairy Tale members may have joined Aogiri Tree?” Evangeline asked Moka as Tsukune cleaned and closed the wound with his venom.

“Yes,” Moka murmured, “if some of them had samples from Alucard…”

Everyone at the table looked to Soma. “What?” Soma asked. “No, I have no idea where all the parts of my body are at all times. Do you have any idea how many incarnations I’ve been through? None of my known incarnations are Nabiki’s sire, that doesn’t mean some of the bits I’ve lost here and there haven’t been misused.”

“Yes,” Dana answered, “and he’s right. Technically most Earthly vampires are related to Alucard in some fashion. This is good news, Nabiki may not even have a proper sire as we would call it.”

All of the eyes around her turned to scrutinise Nabiki. The Tendo sister gulped. “Uh, Dana-sama, are you implying that I’m a… I’m a…”

“A Shinso,” Arcueid finished for her. “Yes. A young one that needs training, but yes.”

“Evangeline,” Dana prompted.

The little blonde glared at her. “No, why don’t you do it?”

“I’m not suggesting either of us do it.”

After a moment, fanged grins spread across the faces of the two unbelievably powerful women.

“What?” Nabiki asked.

#

“Hi there!” A Japanese boy wearing a school uniform greeted, grinning with unassuming friendship as he sat across the table. “My name’s Touta, this is my partner, Kuromaru. We’re from UQ Holder, we’re here to train Nabiki.”

Directly across the table from them, Soun sat glaring at the two visitors. “Nabiki, would you care to explain?”

Sitting between her father and the newcomers, Nabiki coughed. “Well, you remember that I told you that the situation with my condition is highly unusual amongst my kind? Usually a sire mentors a new vampire and teaches them about their abilities. Since I don’t have a sire, the vampire leaders have asked some people they trust to show me the ropes.”

Touta started picking wax from his ear. “Yeah, I hear you’ve got some pretty good fighters at the dojo here too! We’ll be teaching Nabiki how to defend herself, your family’s welcome to train with us if they want.”

Soun rapped his fingers on the table. “Thank you but your services aren’t needed here. If Nabiki wants to learn to defend herself we have plenty of masters of the Anything Goes school here.”

Kuromaru coughed. “Pardon me, sir, but that won’t work. Nabiki is no longer human, human methods of training won’t improve her abilities.”

The elder Tendo’s expressions darkened. “Nabiki is still my daughter. Akane! Ranma!”

Akane skidded to a halt at the door. “Hey, dad, what’s wrong? Oh, hi, you must be Nabiki’s friends!”

“They want to train Nabiki,” Soun muttered darkly.

“Oh, hey, cool! I thought it was a bit weird we never saw any other vampires around to show her the ropes…”

“We don’t WANT them here!” Soun insisted.

“Dad,” Nabiki interrupted, “I think it’s best if they train me. There are crazy people, hunters and things…”

Dabbing their forehead with a towel, Ranma swept black hair out of his face as he opened the outer door. “Hey, what’s all the shouting for? Oh, hi, you must be Nabiki’s friends.”

“Will everyone please stop being nice to these people, I’m trying to kick them out!” Soun shouted.

Akane and Ranma looked at each other, a grin slowly spreading across both their faces. “Well, just kicking them out’s not fair, dad,” Akane argued.

“Right,” Ranma continued, “they need to prove they’re worthy of teaching a member of the Tendo family. If they win against Akane and I, then they can teach Nabiki.”

Touta leapt to his feet. “Yes! A fight! You’re on!”

Kuromaru grabbed the hem of their companion’s shirt and pulled him back down.

Soun’s expression turned to panic. “Wait, Ranma! I-I mean, Nabiki’s not supposed to…”

Akane interrupted him with a pat on the shoulder. “It’s ok, Dad, Ranma and I will beat them and they won’t be able to teach Nabiki then.”

Kuromaru coughed. “Um, I’m afraid if we were to fight a regular opponent here there might be significant collateral damage.”

“Oh, don’t worry, there’s always collateral damage around here!” Ranma said cheerfully. “Come on, I’ll show you the dojo.”

A few minutes later, Akane and Touta were standing across from each other on the dojo floor, both of them cracking their knuckles ominously. Soun sat cross-legged, arms folded, as his eyebrows twitched in silent and impotent rage next to Nabiki, who simply looked worried. Kuromaru and Ranma sat next to each other watching both opponents carefully.

“So, just a friendly match, right?” Touta said cheerfully, “I’ll try to go easy.”

“Just a friendly match,” Akane answered, equally cheerfully, “and I promise to do the same.”

Nabiki looked to Soun, who just sat there sulking, so she stood up. “Um, well, form up,” she suggested. Once the two had taken a ready stance, she nodded. “Bow, please.” Once the two combatants had complied she shouted, “Begin!”

Pouncing forward, Akane thrust two fists at Touta, who met her blows by catching them with his hands. Ranma winced at the meaty thud of the impacts. “Well, that was quick…”

“Wait,” Kuromaru murmured confidently.

Akane looked up at Touta’s grin. “Wow, you’re strong,” he complimented as the two of them pushed towards each other, the tatami mats wrinkling underfoot.

“You’re pretty strong too,” Akane said, smirking back as she pushed harder, “but this isn’t my full power.”

“Mine either,” Touta answered the challenge by meeting her power with his own.

Akane abruptly stepped back, pulling Touta with her rather than pushing. Yanked off the floor, the boy flew past her as she span, bringing an axe kick down, her heel powering towards his abdomen. Still smirking, Touta grabbed her foot and yanked with the force of his spin, sending both of them flying to opposite sides of the room.

Both Soun and Nabiki winced when Akane’s feet hit the dojo wall, wood cracking from her impact. Touta skidded across the mats, ripping furrows in the straw with his hands and feet. Gripping the wall with her chi for a moment, Akane quickly stabbed her fingers into her pressure points, skin sparking as she awakened Freya.

“Akane!” Nabiki shouted as the two opponents seemed to turn into lightning bolts as they launched themselves at each other.

The impact sent a shockwave through the dojo and whipped at clothes and hair, causing the spectators to blink. When they opened their eyes, Touta’s arms were clad in a black shell, clawed fingers of his right hand gripping Akane’s throat as sparks crawled over his body. Akane stared down at him wide-eyed, gulping when she saw the claws of his other hand in front of her eyes.

“Nice technique!” Touta enthused as he let her go, dusting off the shredded sleeves of his shirt. “That actually hurt a bit.”

Akane had enough presence of mind to alight safely on her feet, her hair still sparking as she stared wide-eyed at her opponent. “Not bad yourself, you’re as strong as I am and almost as fast as Ranma! What’s with the arms?”

“Oh, it’s a secret technique called Magia Ereba…”

“Idiot!” Kuromaru snapped from the sidelines. “It’s not a secret if you tell everyone its name!”

Touta had the decency to look embarrassed. “Oh, right! Sorry. But it lets me manipulate Yin energy and gain power from circulating my blood. Have you considered learning air magic? My grandfather used it and with that spirit of yours, you might have some talent. Get more control over the lightning powers rather than relying on manipulating your chi.”

Tapping her pressure points to shut Freya off again, Akane mused. “That might be a good idea, thanks for the tip. You’re good enough to teach my sister.”

“Thanks, I won’t let you down!”

“Hey!” Soun protested. “The deal was that both of you would fight them!”

Ranma and Kuromaru, however, were already walking out onto the mat. “Oh, after seeing that there’s no way we’re not fighting. I’m way too pumped up,” Ranma shouted enthusiastically.

“Agreed,” Kuromaru said as they took position opposite Ranma, “though I’m used to fighting with a sword rather than hand-to-hand.”

“Don’t worry,” Ranma said, smiling, “this is the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. We fight people with bokken all the time.”

Cheering up, Kuromaru pulled a bamboo sword seemingly out of nowhere and straightened their kimono. “Great, I need a workout today.”

Once Akane and Touta were out of the way, Ranma and Kuromaru faced off. Nabiki looked over the damage to the dojo and sighed in resignation. “Please try not to do too much damage. Fight!”

Nabiki almost immediately lost track of the two fighters as they turned into blurs of motion, dodging and jabbing as they tested each other’s reactions.

Touta whistled. “Your friend’s pretty fast, I don’t think I can match Kuromaru like that.”

“I don’t think either of us have faced a swordsman as fast as Kuromaru,” Akane said breathlessly.

Rolling back on the balls of their feet as Kuromaru pressed the attack, Ranma fell into a deep L-stance to avoid the attack, then sprang back to their feet, leaping into the air to vault over Kuromaru’s head. Spinning their bokken to their side for a draw, Ranma barely dodged their opponent’s second overhead swing by running across the ceiling.

Unfortunately, the compressed wave of air from the tip of the wooden blade ripped a clean gash in the overhead sprinkler system, spraying cold water over the dojo. Kuromaru’s eyes widened when they turned to find a red-haired female Ranma also turning around to face them, ignoring the water dripping off their body.

“Matte!” Nabiki shouted, running off to turn off the valve for the sprinklers. Both Kuromaru and Ranma both relaxed. Then Ranma span to look for Akane, who was huddled under Touta, the boy shielding Akane from the spray with his back. The water quickly subsided as Nabiki turned off the valve and came running back with duct tape and a ladder to fix the hole in the pipes.

“Sorry about that,” Touta apologized as he took his seat next to Akane again.

“No, thank you,” Akane answered, smiling, “people other than my girlfriends and sisters don’t usually think of that.”

“You changed sex,” Kuromaru observed, addressing Ranma.

“Uh, yeah,” red-haired Ranma sighed. “Is that a problem?”

Kuromaru smiled. “Far from it. Would you like to take a moment to change back?”

Ranma put her hands behind her head. “Nah, I’m good if it’s ok with you. I’d have to go boil some water and it takes a bit, besides I’m feeling female at the moment so this works out.”

“Well, if you don’t mind,” Kuromaru said, closing their eyes. After a moment, their form shifted under their kimono, becoming softer and curvier. When they opened their eyes again, they were fully female.

Gaping, Ranma hopped up and down on their toes. “You can do that? Without water or anything? How? Where did you learn it? Can I learn it?”

Raising their hands, Kuromaru tried to ward off the torrent of questions. “Um, sorry, I can’t teach you that one. It happens because of my regeneration ability. I’m gender fluid too, so I change sex when my gender switches as my regeneration tries to make my body as my mind thinks it should be.”

Ranma smacked herself in the forehead. “Ugh. I got cursed like this but it's kinda cool for me but the whole hot and cold water thing is a pain in the ass. Particularly if I’m feeling male and I’m fem or vice versa.”

“That would suck,” Kuromaru sympathised, “we’ll have to work something out for you.”

Having finished fixing the repairs, Nabiki climbed down and put the ladder out of the way. She waited for the combatants to get ready again before shouting, “Continue!”

Both fighters fell into a ready stance, Ranma in an L-stance with her left hand forward, Kuromaru slightly hunched, right foot forward with their bokken held at their left side. This time, Kuromaru took the lead, stepping forward to deliver a broad horizontal slash that broke the sound barrier. Ranma anticipated the blow and jumped over it, the blade grazing the soles of their shoes. She wasn’t fast enough to dodge the second wooden sword that appeared in Kuromaru’s left hand and poked her in the chest, knocking her out of the air.

Landing with a hole in their shirt shoulder and a small bruise underneath, Ranma sighed. “You win. Nice move.”

Kuromaru scratched the back of their head, blushing. “Sorry for using such sneaky tactics, but we really need to train Nabiki to control her powers. If we don’t, it will cause trouble down the line. You did force me to use my kami powers, though.”

Touta walked over and slapped Kuromaru on the shoulder. “Seriously, Kuromaru, ‘that would suck’? Where’d you learn such language?”

They glared at their partner. “Your idiocy is rubbing off on me.”

Touta rolled his eyes. “Now you’re sounding like Kirie.”

“Who’s Kirie?” Akane asked, walking over to Ranma with a towel.

The vampires blushed. “Oh, uh,” Kuromaru murmured, “they’re our sort-of girlfriend. Or they will be when they get physically older. They’re mentally a bit over twenty but because of her ability she’s still only physically fourteen. We’re in a physical relationship with another woman, though, Karin.”

Ranma and Akane looked at each other again and grinned. “Awesome! We’ve got another girlfriend too, Kodachi!” Ranma enthused. “Yeah,” Akane continued, “our polycules should totally go on a double date sometime!”

“NOOOOOO!” Soun wailed, running from the dojo leaving a steam of tears in his wake. “NABIKI! NOOOOO!”

Sighing, Nabiki shook her head. “Why’s he so upset? It’s his fault I’m a vampire in the first place.”

“You don’t think it’s because this is all his fault and us training you means you’re going to become more like a vampire and less like his daughter?” Touta asked.

Nabiki paused, held up one finger, then paused again. Sighing, she shook her head and took out her phone. “I’ll call Kasumi, she’ll pull him together.”

In the awkward silence that followed, Kuromaru smacked Touta on the back of the head.


End file.
